The company “Wildberries” is an international online-selling platform that is really popular in CIS countries. It was established in 2004 in Moscow region by Tatiana Bakalchuk, an English teacher, and her husband radio physics. At the same when they had a baby, the need for money raised up automatically. Therefore, the idea of buying clothes from German catalogs «Otto» и «Quelle» started making those needed money. The business began working without any attracted investments, but only of its own borrowed funds.
Their storage room was in their apartment until they began to expand. Now, they already have the biggest commercial storage place in Russian, which is 145,000 sq. m. Their shopping list catalog is endless and being added often.
The business model is to cooperate directly with clothing manufacturers and official distributors. They independently form the range of their products in the market space and retail prices, and Wildberries earns a commission on sales results. Should be said that 15% is the commission for sellers from October 2019. Also, Wildberries became an exclusively online seller of new collections of the Dutch brand Mexx in 2019.
Additionally, there is no Board of Directors in the organizational structure, and the number of heads of departments and divisions is small: the management structure is simple, and its style is described as democratic.
Nevertheless, the capitalization of the company is estimated at $1,2 bn, by Forbes Russia in 2019. Their site is a leader by traffic and ahead of Uniqlo, H&M, Zara, and ASOS, which is making me truly surprised. Wildberries is often called the rising star of Russian e-commerce.
Wildberries is one of those online shopping platforms which is used around the world. It is massive cooperation that had to take more than 10 years to become as they are now.
Now, social commerce started mushrooming quite recently. It is a favorite marketing tool for stuff brands. Now it is not only a place for socializing in cyberspace but also a place to shop. It should be noted that the new social commerce is a part of e-commerce. The difference is SC involves social media for supporting direct social interaction with a client that at the same time making easier the purchasing goods process.
In this new branch usually, an influencer or celebrity may take place as a seller. The more followers influencer has the more offers she/he will get. So, it is an additional motivation for an account promotion.
Personally, I see some advantages for brands and sellers using SC model. The first one is that brand may realize which audience is prioritized in someone’s account. It will help to direct brand money from marketing more accurately, of course, there are mistakes, but the success of the deal depends more on the manager. The second one, communication. Fast, direct, and easy to understand will not take much time. Also, users buying staff for example on Instagram or Facebook will not have to downland or open the website for looking good. The third one, real money for influencers. As we can see there a lot of people who are not just making fun on Instagram, they are really paid for what they do. So, it is a new job nowadays.
In comparison to the e-commerce business model, social commerce is a high demand for the young generation, which wants to buy more and stay up to date with trends. Every day scrolling a page users with a high probability may see offers. As AI explores all the posts that you stopped and liked. On one side, it may be cool as it doesn’t waste time to fund something users may like. On another side, is there any chance of having a private space? I think this is a game in which you either accept the rules or not.
Recourses:
https://www.intellinews.com/wildberries-leads-the-top-50-russian-e-commerce-online-stores-ranked-by-revenues-in-2018-160499/
https://voi.id/en/lifestyle/20991/the-phenomenon-of-social-commerce-which-will-crush-online-shops